so here's some of my story....I am over teenage acne ... but started around 11 too... I did have problems on face, back, chest, until I tried Accutane a few times. that was a big help but I realized that one thing I did besides Accutane helped me. in my 20s I had a sauna that was very long 30 or 40 minutes and I was sweating like crazy. the next day my skin almost glowed which had never ever happened before. also I later noticed when I had facials my skin did temporarily improve. the facial steaming was very effective for me. If I had known in my teens I would have made arrangements for saunas. yes it is difficult to arrange especially for under 16yrs but if possible at least try a gym sauna and see if there is an improvement for you. if you are not used to a sauna don't do a long time the first time and go with a parent or friend. instead of sauna you can try steaming at home for your face. This is something that could make a difference. Also I was very stressed and this caused a mineral deficiency for me and another very serious issue. so I recommend a multivitamin every day. if you are constantly stressed about skin etc. it is not healthy. a multivitamin can at least make sure you are not depleting yourself of important vitamins. Concentrating on being healthy & drinking water is the right approach...always stay positive.

hey Jack,

don't lose hope, most of us have been there in some form or another as well good stuff on some of those dietary changes, did you notice any difference in the 2-4 weeks after your change? Try to cut sugar from your diet and see what happens - it is one of the greatest contributors body and skin acidity changes and i am sure many people on this forum can provide anecdotal evidence of how sugar has affected them (including my own eat-nothing-but-sugar diet during university exam times).

you have tried the cleansers before but the active concentrations in those OTC preparations are quite low and effective only for mild outbreaks - it sounds like yours is worse than that. Have you ever tried 5% - 30% salicylic preparations? 5% salicylic wipes are available on the internet and with some beauty therapists, and a 30% salicylic chemical peel is like carpet bombing all the bacteria on your skin. Having said that, these only work if the acne is bacterial in origin... did your specialist ever give a clear diagnosis or is this the GP we are talking about?

as far as economical ongoing therapy, if the cause is bacterial then you could also try to find a skin clinic that does blue light LED phototherapy - give that a consistent trial over 3-4 weeks and if the results are successful you may want to purchase a home unit (much more cost effective).

a few question that may seem unrelated - how often do you exercise? do you sweat alot on your face? as photogal suggested, steaming can be great for shallow, blocked oily plugs that can turn into acne, and in general the sweat glands also leech a small amount of toxins that would otherwise stay happily camped in your skin. I know that my acne gets worse if i haven't exercised at a high intensity for two weeks... and after resuming exercise. it takes another 2-4 weeks for my appearance to re-establish. If you do exercise but your skin subsequently gets really oily, then the issue is hormonal - Accutane doesn't stop hormonal problems, it only stops the secretion cells from forming.

shaving. when you shave, do you get alot of skin sloughing off on the blade? You might need an exfoliation to stop the oil in your skin from getting stuck.

keep us posted

hey Jack,

don't lose hope, most of us have been there in some form or another as well good stuff on some of those dietary changes, did you notice any difference in the 2-4 weeks after your change? Try to cut sugar from your diet and see what happens - it is one of the greatest contributors body and skin acidity changes and i am sure many people on this forum can provide anecdotal evidence of how sugar has affected them (including my own eat-nothing-but-sugar diet during university exam times).

you have tried the cleansers before but the active concentrations in those OTC preparations are quite low and effective only for mild outbreaks - it sounds like yours is worse than that. Have you ever tried 5% - 30% salicylic preparations? 5% salicylic wipes are available on the internet and with some beauty therapists, and a 30% salicylic chemical peel is like carpet bombing all the bacteria on your skin. Having said that, these only work if the acne is bacterial in origin... did your specialist ever give a clear diagnosis or is this the GP we are talking about?

as far as economical ongoing therapy, if the cause is bacterial then you could also try to find a skin clinic that does blue light LED phototherapy - give that a consistent trial over 3-4 weeks and if the results are successful you may want to purchase a home unit (much more cost effective).

a few question that may seem unrelated - how often do you exercise? do you sweat alot on your face? as photogal suggested, steaming can be great for shallow, blocked oily plugs that can turn into acne, and in general the sweat glands also leech a small amount of toxins that would otherwise stay happily camped in your skin. I know that my acne gets worse if i haven't exercised at a high intensity for two weeks... and after resuming exercise. it takes another 2-4 weeks for my appearance to re-establish. If you do exercise but your skin subsequently gets really oily, then the issue is hormonal - Accutane doesn't stop hormonal problems, it only stops the secretion cells from forming.

shaving. when you shave, do you get alot of skin sloughing off on the blade? You might need an exfoliation to stop the oil in your skin from getting stuck.

keep us posted

Thanks for the reply, about the exercising, yes i play football throughout the week and other activities but i love them and do not want give them up do you have any suggestions for hormonal acne, i also have only skin

so here's some of my story....I am over teenage acne ... but started around 11 too... I did have problems on face, back, chest, until I tried Accutane a few times. that was a big help but I realized that one thing I did besides Accutane helped me. in my 20s I had a sauna that was very long 30 or 40 minutes and I was sweating like crazy. the next day my skin almost glowed which had never ever happened before. also I later noticed when I had facials my skin did temporarily improve. the facial steaming was very effective for me. If I had known in my teens I would have made arrangements for saunas. yes it is difficult to arrange especially for under 16yrs but if possible at least try a gym sauna and see if there is an improvement for you. if you are not used to a sauna don't do a long time the first time and go with a parent or friend. instead of sauna you can try steaming at home for your face. This is something that could make a difference. Also I was very stressed and this caused a mineral deficiency for me and another very serious issue. so I recommend a multivitamin every day. if you are constantly stressed about skin etc. it is not healthy. a multivitamin can at least make sure you are not depleting yourself of important vitamins. Concentrating on being healthy & drinking water is the right approach...always stay positive.

would you recommend boilng the kettle and pouring it into a bowl then putting my face over it for atleast 10 mins?

Hey Jack,

Nono, keep up with the exercise; I wasn't suggesting to stop - exercise helps to keep my skin under control especially when I have a bad diet. I was asking about this because it gives me an understanding of how your skin is secreting/mixing sweat and oil production.

I am going to assume that you have tried benzoyl peroxide as part of all the previous treatments that failed?

My strongest suggestion would be to go with a hyaluronic acid (HA) moisturiser with minimal other ingredients. It may seem counterintuitive but plumping up your skin with water (which hyaluronic acid is good for) helps to decrease oil production. You will need to use this daily for about two weeks to see any changes. To help with the absorption of the moisturiser, scrub your skin with a relatively harsh scrub... you should see the skin start to turn pink. I know other users on here might frown at this, but my reasoning is that we are trying to mimic the effect of microdermabrasion. which is a cosmetic process you normally pay $80-150 for. Microermbrasion removes the dead surface skin cells and allows more moisturiser to be absorbed (shaving works as well to remove the superficial dead skin but i doubt you'd be shaving hard over the acne areas!). HA moisturisers can be found at beauty shops, or online... I"m just trying to stay mindful of your potential budget, given your age. YOu can go with professional microdermabrasion as well - I'm not stopping you from trying that. Just make sure to quiz you clinic to see how much they know about acne... otherwise microdermabrasion can actually make the situation worse.

Once you have that sorted, attempt a salicylic acid chemical peel (20 or 30%) followed by some blue light LED Phototherapy. one or two chemical peels should be enough - the phototherapy would do the rest. I would expect to see results within 1 week, since once the bacteria is under control, your acne will stop proliferating. The hormonal triggers will still cause some to occur, but as you've mentioned you've been paying very close attention to it and I"m sure you would notice if there is a difference over this timeframe.

So, in essence, I will sum up my approach - 1) bacterial acne is the biggest problem for adolescents, so we try to get that surface situation under control, and; 2) oily skin is actually a knee-jerk response to excessive dehydration, so the moisturisers address that.

Diet-wise, like i said, I would go harsh on trimming sugar and too much meats - these reduce the acidity of the oils your skin secretes, which in turn is not as effective as naturally warding off bacteria.

My preference? Do each step at a time, wait 1-2 weeks. SO you know what is having an effect, what is not. It is a frustratingly slow process, but then again you've soldiered on this long, so the methodical approach won't take too much more time.

And don't compare yourself with your friends! I had mostly great skin through school (pitied my friends) but once I hit university,... it was them who had the last laugh

If nobody else joins in this topic, you might want to ask around on the forums if anyone can recommend microdermabrasion clinics/phototherapy clinics around your area. Unfortunately I am in Australia and cannot give location-specific advice.

Hey Jack,

Nono, keep up with the exercise; I wasn't suggesting to stop - exercise helps to keep my skin under control especially when I have a bad diet. I was asking about this because it gives me an understanding of how your skin is secreting/mixing sweat and oil production.

I am going to assume that you have tried benzoyl peroxide as part of all the previous treatments that failed?

My strongest suggestion would be to go with a hyaluronic acid (HA) moisturiser with minimal other ingredients. It may seem counterintuitive but plumping up your skin with water (which hyaluronic acid is good for) helps to decrease oil production. You will need to use this daily for about two weeks to see any changes. To help with the absorption of the moisturiser, scrub your skin with a relatively harsh scrub... you should see the skin start to turn pink. I know other users on here might frown at this, but my reasoning is that we are trying to mimic the effect of microdermabrasion. which is a cosmetic process you normally pay $80-150 for. Microermbrasion removes the dead surface skin cells and allows more moisturiser to be absorbed (shaving works as well to remove the superficial dead skin but i doubt you'd be shaving hard over the acne areas!). HA moisturisers can be found at beauty shops, or online... I"m just trying to stay mindful of your potential budget, given your age. YOu can go with professional microdermabrasion as well - I'm not stopping you from trying that. Just make sure to quiz you clinic to see how much they know about acne... otherwise microdermabrasion can actually make the situation worse.

Once you have that sorted, attempt a salicylic acid chemical peel (20 or 30%) followed by some blue light LED Phototherapy. one or two chemical peels should be enough - the phototherapy would do the rest. I would expect to see results within 1 week, since once the bacteria is under control, your acne will stop proliferating. The hormonal triggers will still cause some to occur, but as you've mentioned you've been paying very close attention to it and I"m sure you would notice if there is a difference over this timeframe.

So, in essence, I will sum up my approach - 1) bacterial acne is the biggest problem for adolescents, so we try to get that surface situation under control, and; 2) oily skin is actually a knee-jerk response to excessive dehydration, so the moisturisers address that.

Diet-wise, like i said, I would go harsh on trimming sugar and too much meats - these reduce the acidity of the oils your skin secretes, which in turn is not as effective as naturally warding off bacteria.

My preference? Do each step at a time, wait 1-2 weeks. SO you know what is having an effect, what is not. It is a frustratingly slow process, but then again you've soldiered on this long, so the methodical approach won't take too much more time.

And don't compare yourself with your friends! I had mostly great skin through school (pitied my friends) but once I hit university,... it was them who had the last laugh

If nobody else joins in this topic, you might want to ask around on the forums if anyone can recommend microdermabrasion clinics/phototherapy clinics around your area. Unfortunately I am in Australia and cannot give location-specific advice.

i think im going to go on a diet which has 0 sugar, too see what it does, also do you think drinking 4 litres of water will have a solid effect on my acne also iam eating 1 banana a day and 2 apples to try and substatuate the sugar

Jack,

not too sure what excessive water consumption would do. Definitely if you are not drinking enough, you need to increase... I don't know the science behind how much water intake is good but if you are sweating it up on the footy field, 4 litres a day on those training days sounds about right. You wouldn't need 4 litres if it was just school and hometime.

Jack,

not too sure what excessive water consumption would do. Definitely if you are not drinking enough, you need to increase... I don't know the science behind how much water intake is good but if you are sweating it up on the footy field, 4 litres a day on those training days sounds about right. You wouldn't need 4 litres if it was just school and hometime.

can i mail you pictures of my skin to see if you can advise me furthur?